24th November 2010
Today has been a milestone in the fight against the coalition government. Up and down the country students have taken action, and are showing us all that there is life in popular demonstrations.
They are right to protest, and we unreservedly back them. Education is a right, it should be provided free of charge, and we are the only party in parliament who would abolish all student fees.
The Tories and Lib Dems say that only people earning more than £21,000 will have to pay back. That sounds reasonable, but we have calculated that someone on £21,000 will barely have enough to begin paying back the loan once the costs of housing, food, utilities, council tax and income tax are taken into acount. The reality is that many will simply be mired in debt until they are into their 60's.
What kind of life do young people face? Debt that mounts in their 20's, followed by the highest property prices to pay in Europe, spiralling costs of raising children and then, just as they are clear of debt, they will be faced with little or no pension and having to work until they're 68, or even 70. To cap it off there will be an insecure old age, where they will sell their house to pay for social care. This why some are turning to violence - people riot when they have no hope.
The fact is that what we are seeing is a long term strategy to reduce the number of high skilled jobs in the UK and to replace them with low skilled, low paid jobs, where people will not need degree level education. This is the horrible truth when the government speaks of making Britain competitive. It means we cannot compete with high skill economies like Germany, because we have no manufacuing base. Instead we will compete with India and Eastern Europe and will see growth by creating more supermarkets, call centres and warehouses.
This is the reason why they are dismantling Higher Education. Their educational reforms are about separating out a small elite who will take the dwindling number of skilled jobs, while the rest have enough GCSE's to ensure they can competently handle customer enquires but realistically do little more than just push buttons or stack shelves.
Leeds University
The students are right to protest and we encourage workers to join their struggle and bring down this government.
To find more about the Student Movement please visit the National Campaign Against fees and Cuts